Jude Bellingham, Jadon Sancho are the big ones. Then we have the ones we maybe aren’t aware of just yet; Noni Madueke of PSV and Omar Richards of Bayern. They’re bubbling away pling their trade in a different league, quietly going about their business. There is also of course former West London Blue (Chelsea) youth team player Jamal Musiala, whom since choosing to represent Germany seems to have fallen out of the medias care…but that’s an article for another time. All of those players mentioned above are players who have left their clubs for pastures new abroad. If the Dortmund reports are to be believed, could we soon be adding Carney Chukwuemeka to that list?
Now of course, Carney isn’t a Jude Bellingham. But then again, who is? The only other player I’ve seen burst onto the scene and look at a World Class level at such a young age was a certain Wayne Rooney (sorry Phil Foden). Bellingham is a freak of nature in every sense of the way. I’m more interested in comparing Carney to messieurs Sancho and Madueke, who left Manchester City and Tottenham respectively. The heir to United’s famed number 7 and PSV’s number 10. Both were probably rated highly but found a pathway to the first team difficult. Pathway is going to be a very key word in this article.
The thing I’ve seen floating about most from Villa Twitta, is that Carney maybe doesn’t have the fight to work his way into the first team. Our club is clearly on the up, with a fantastic playing squad, a seemingly great manager and owners who are putting money where the mouths are. Yet, the lingering question over his contract continues. Wayne Rooney left Everton to play for the greatest British Manager of all time. Leaving St.Andrews for Dortmund is a no-brainer (no offence). Reading or Chelsea to Bayern? Danke! But why would a young player want to leave us? Surely there’s something wrong with him? No, not really. There’s no better example of why you may want to seek other opportunities elsewhere than Jadon Sancho…A player who left the richest club in the world, the team who have the worlds best manager in Pep Guardiola and though his record maybe patchy, has shown he can give opportunities to youngsters. You’d have to be crazy not to believe in that vision, right? Wrong. Sometimes you have to back yourself over the team. A team that had De Bruyne, David and Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus as well as youngster Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz all in contention for attacking berths. Foden and Diaz made 10 appearances a piece in all comps that 17/18 season, Sancho 12. The next season? Diaz was mostly out of the picture at Real whereas Foden made 26 apps scoring 7 goals. Sancho? 43 apps 13 goals, while also squeezing in 3 appearances for England aswell. Fast forward to 2022, one is pricelss to City, the other a 75m purchase for Man Utd. They both backed themselves, but in different ways.
What does this have to do with Carney and Aston Villa? Well firstly, he isn’t one of our own much like Grealish was. That’s important during times like this. Carney is an Austrian born British Nigerian who we signed from Northampton in 2016. In this situation. Carney is Sancho and Grealish is Foden. Sometimes being a local lad helps you through the ranks even if you are the most gifted…it’s a story isn’t it? Carney is very much a victim of circumstance. We as a club need to push on, NOW.
We’ve invested heavily since Grealish left and we now have a genuine squad of depth, quality and character. Of course we are a great project to look at. But since Gerrard’s appointment it’s very important to note Carney has had game time yes, but the actual opportunities are limited. When we were playing with a 4-3-3, choosing either Ings or Watkins up top, it was easier to get him gametime especially when you add injuries and AFCON into the mix (Bailey, Traore). But ever since Gerrard has found a way to pair Watkins and Ings up top with Coutinho in behind. That limits the opportunities for a variety of players. Buendia who has probably been our best player all season finds himself on the bench due to the genius of one Philippe Coutinho. That’s hard to argue and it really doesn’t matter how hard you work in training if the guy in your position is performing week in week out. (How do you drop Chambers for Konsa?) Buendia is a super footballer and I’m sure he could play as one of the 8’s right? Yes and no. It’s not as simple as swapping Emi for either Jacob Ramsey or McGinn. They’re completely different types of players. Yes he can in theory play as an 8, but that’s not really his competition unless you do something drastic like Eddie Howe has done for Joelinton. When JJ or Mcginn aren’t at the races. You’ll see Sanson come in, or when Nakamba comes back to full fitness you’ll see Douglas Luiz. Similarly, when either Watkins or Ings comes off it’ll either be for Bailey or Buendia and depending on what the game needs, it will then be either Traore or Chukwuemeka. Are you seeing it a bit more now? If not take a look at Dan James at Leeds. He’s been playing well as the centre forward for them despite their losses, but as soon as Patrick Bamford is available to start he’s outta there. Bond or not, Coutinho has the keys to Villa Park and if he signs for us, that’s around £40m. We have quickly identified the key to our success being how well we can get Phil playing. Buendia is the big loser in all this because in theory he could perform to that level but Coutinho is already doing it. When you have £80m worth of talent around that central position, it’s going to be very very hard to get a look in. Add to the fact that we’ve been knocked out of cup competitions, and we have no Europe, everything is focussed on the league so changes are going to be hard to come by.
Every Manager loves to have attacking forward options, that’s a non-negotiable. It’s a different scenario to say Matt Targett leaving us in January…again some of the fanbase called him week for not wanting to fight etc. But generally unless you have UCL fixtures, no manager has real competition for their back five, no matter how much they lie in press conferences. Spending 25m on a LB to have him maybe not play is quite frankly unheard of for a team without Europe and if you think Targett didn’t have the fight, you’re just wrong. It’s different to us signing Callum Chambers because clearly Mings Konsa is the preferred partnership, but we didn’t have any cover once Tuanzebe left for Napoli (yikes), so Chambers has benefitted from Covid, injuries and suspensions to get a run in the side. Neither Chambers or Konsa have played bad enough to lose their spot and once one does or when one plays supremely well, you get actual competition like we are seeing now. Signing Digne and dropping Targett straight away is a clear ‘this is my guy’ and as we saw against Leeds. Digne came straight back in for Young while Chambers kept his place because of how well he played despite Young also playing well.
So why not go on loan you say? That’s clearly because they see Carney as a level above Barry, JPB, Hayden and Aaron Ramsey etc. Same with Timo, it could be possible that management has said we want you with the group you can and will play? Another reason could be the two with us are physically a bit more prepared for the league at this moment in time and to be fair, they’re both in positions where a couple of injuries to the guys ahead of them and all of a sudden it puts them in the starting XI. The funny thing is they all want the same, it’s just that Carney wants first team football in one of Europes top leagues, whereas the others were happy to play elsewhere at a lower level. The desire is the same but of course the futures may look different with/without loans.
Ultimately, I don’t really see where the opportunities to actually impress come of Carney. We’re in form and you don’t change a winning formula. It isn’t a measure of his talent or his application, he is just in a team that is in a great moment but also needs to capitalise on those moments ASAP. If he can get a move to a team who will play in Europe and maybe go further in cup runs, he may only play 12 times in the league but rack up another 12 performances across league, cup, and European competitions. That’s what Foden did that’s what others are doing and yes of course…for every Musiala there is a Dale Jennings and a John Bostock but for every Dan Crowley there’s a Serge Gnabry and whether you rate him or not, Paul Pogba (the trophies speak for themselves).
A cautionary tale is nothing but a warning. Sometimes I think fans are too precious about their club and don’t consider the players feelings and rememeber all they really want to do is play football. And of course, we are more than happy to court the young players of other clubs aren’t we?. We spent all of January yearning for Aaron Hickey, who did the exact same thing Carney may do, that others have done. We just signed Kerr Smith for this exact same reason. So they’ve proven they do understand it, but of course it’s harder when they’re ‘‘one of our own’’. If Carney leaves, wish him the best because he’s a great talent and he will be another Sancho in my eyes. If he stays, he can be like Grealish and whether it’s Europe with him or another £100m. The club will move on accordingly and continue to grow! UTV
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